Sept. 1, 2010

Printable Schedule  |  Audio: Jeter On The Schedule

MILWAUKEE - A first-ever home game with crosstown-rival Marquette, a home matchup against NCAA Tournament darling Northern Iowa and road contests with Wisconsin and DePaul highlight the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team's 2010-11 schedule.

The Panthers will also again play a full round-robin schedule against Horizon League competition, including a pair of games with NCAA runner-up Butler.

The full schedule was released today by head coach Rob Jeter.

Milwaukee returns a host of players from a team that won 20 games a season ago. Starters Anthony Hill, Jerard Ajami and Tony Meier will be bolstered by the return of all-league guard Tone Boyle, who missed last season with a back injury. Plus, key reserves Ryan Haggerty, Lonnie Boga and Ja'Rob McCallum return, while the key additions include point guard Kaylon Williams, true freshmen Kyle Kelm and Evan Richard and junior-college wing Ryan Allen.

That group will be tested by a schedule that involves 13 regular season home contests and 17 games outside of Milwaukee. The non-league schedule includes four games against teams that played in the postseason a year ago, with the 11 non-conference opponents having averaged 18 wins a year ago.

"The goal every year with our schedule is to prepare us for our league," Jeter said. "We're pretty excited about our schedule. It's going to be a challenging one but it's also going to be one that is going to be fun for our fans to watch us prepare ourselves for the league."

Of particular interest this season is the slate of non-league home games the Panthers have been able to assemble. Along with visits by Marquette and Northern Iowa, Mid-American Conference foes Western Michigan and Bowling Green will visit Milwaukee.

"I am sure the fans are going to enjoy watching and hopefully they are excited to come down to The Cell and see us play," Jeter said. "We also have the throwback game (vs. Western Michigan at the Klotsche Center) and have the chance to come back to campus for one game, along with our exhibitions, to kind of drum up some interest with this group of guys that we have."

The regular season opens Nov. 12-14 at the Athletes In Action Classic in Portland, Ore. UWM will face Portland, Florida Atlantic and UC Davis on consecutive days. The Panthers then make the trip back across the country for a Nov. 17 contest at Niagara before finally settling in at home.

In fact, Milwaukee will play five-straight at home. Northern Iowa, which upset top-seeded Kansas en route to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament a season ago, visits the U.S. Cellular Arena Nov. 20 in the first game of a four-year contract between the two schools. Nov. 23, Western Michigan visits the on-campus Klotsche Center for a special throwback event. Nov. 27, the highly-anticipated contest between UWM and Marquette at The Cell takes center stage. UWM has never been the home team in its series with Marquette, which has seen the Golden Eagles win all 37 matchups between the two schools.

The homestand continues with the start of Horizon League play, as UWM will face Youngstown State (Dec. 2) and Cleveland State (Dec. 4) to open the league campaign. Then, it is back to non-league action with road games at Wisconsin (Dec. 8), South Dakota State (Dec. 11) and DePaul (Dec. 14). The pre-holiday schedule wraps up with a home game against Bowling Green at the U.S. Cellular Arena Dec. 18.

League play begins in earnest as the New Year dawns, with road games at Wright State (Dec. 30) and Detroit (Jan. 1) starting the run. The Panthers then get an early look at defending champion Butler, which visits The Cell Jan. 3. From there, UWM plays four more home games and three road contests during January, including a return date at Butler Jan. 23.

In February, UWM welcomes in-state rival Green Bay Feb. 5 and Valparaiso Feb. 16. Otherwise, the Panthers will be away from home, actually finishing the regular season with five of their final six games on the road.

"Top to bottom this is probably as tough as this league has ever been, or at least in a long time," Jeter said. "You can rattle off four or five teams right away at the top and obviously anything can happen in those games. It's going to be a very challenging conference season."

A number of game times for both home and away contests remain undetermined, as does the full television schedule for the 2010-11 season. The Horizon League is continuing its television agreements with the ESPN family of networks, including the Friday night ESPNU/ESPN3.com package. The league will also again feature a Saturday afternoon game of the week on affiliates across the Midwest. Plus, UWM and Time Warner Cable Sports 32 recently announced a two-year extension of their television agreement, with the full slate of home and away Sports 32 broadcasts set after ESPN and the Horizon League make their final game selections.